California Biographies
Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
Source:
History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
With Biographical Sketches
History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry
Illustrated, Complete In One Volume
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914
CHARLES MARSH YOUNG.� In the early days of Middletown, Lake
county, C. M. Young was one of the most prominent business men of the
place, and he has recently returned to spend the days of his retirement there
after a number of years on his large ranch in Coyote valley. The home he
occupies he built in 1872. Though he has passed the threescore and ten mark
he has relinquished all the care of his interests only within the last year, and
is still looking after his affairs with his usual capability. His congenial nature
and straightforward dealings have drawn numerous friends to him in the
course of a busy life, and his kindness of heart has endeared him to the many
who have always found their relations with him pleasant to remember. In
the early seventies, when Middletown was being laid out, Mr. Young became
interested in the consequent real estate transactions. He ran the Lake County
House � still the leading hostelry at Middletown � for a number of years, and
was also engaged in other lines, at one time, in fact, having the hotel, a general
store, meat market and livery barn. Though he has had some business
reverses they have not proved serious drawbacks, and he is now a large
landowner in Lake county, his holdings in Coyote valley comprising nine
hundred and sixty acres of valuable land. He has held public positions, prov-
ing a very competent and trustworthy official, and the story of his well
rounded life has its place in the history of Lake county.
Born near Petersburg, Menard county. Ill., March 8, 1841, Mr. Young
is the youngest child of his parents. His father, Matthias Young, a native of
Kentucky, married Mrs. Hannah (Smith) Pantier, who was born in New
York state, and she died on the Young homestead in Menard county, when her
son Charles was five years old. Of the five children born to them three grew
to maturity : Mary, widow of David Ogden, of Sundance, Wyo., has three
living children ; William A. is in the soldiers' home at Sawtelle, Los Angeles
county, Cal. ; Charles Marsh is mentioned more fully later. The father remar-
ried after the mother's death, and had one child, a daughter, Lizzie (Mrs.
Higgins) by the second union. Matthias Young's death occurred at his
home in Menard county when Charles M. Young was eight years old. By
occupation he was a farmer, and he was one of the early settlers in Menard
county, taking an active part in its organization. Mr. Young's grandfather, a
native of Scotland, served in the Revolutionary war, and bore the title of major.
During that war he was left on the field for dead, but recovered, though he
had received nineteen saber cuts on the back.
Charles Marsh Young was reared on the farm, and his childhood was
typical of the times and locality. He obtained his schooling during two
months' attendance in the winter season, being obliged to assist with the
farm work from an early age. He began to plow when only eight years old.
In 1863 he set out for California, coming across the plains with teams, but
stopped in the then territory of Nevada and for five months was engaged at
ranching in the Carson valley. In January, 1864, he came on to San Fran-
cisco and returned to Illinois via Panama and New York, and then by rail
to Menard county. His brother, William A., had just been discharged from
the army, having been badly wounded. The same year the brothers started
together overland with teams and wagons for the Idaho mines, over which
there was great excitement at the time, but at Colonel Bridgers cutoff they
branched off, William continuing on to Idaho and Charles M. to California.
He located in Sonoma county, where he rented a place and farmed two years.
In 1866 he married, and shortly afterward moved into Lake county, arriving
in Coyote valley January 18, 1867. During the next four years Mr. Young
rented grant land, and then bought a farm a mile north of what is now Mid-
dletown � about October, 1870. At that time considerable teaming was done in
that region, hauling sulphur and borax, and stages ran between Lower Lake
and Calistoga. This point being about centrally located between these places
it came quite naturally by the name of Middletown. Its reputation was
further extended from the fact that it proved a good junction for the patrons
of Harbin Springs, the first mineral springs in the county to attract great
attention, and liberally patronized even as early as 1870. When the quick-
silver prospects at the Great Western mine began to boom another impetus
was given to the opening up of the locality, and Oscar Armstrong and John
H. Berry (the latter a brother-in-law of Mr. Young) bought forty acres from
the Callayomi grant, and later forty acres more from William J. Armstrong.
In 1872 they proceeded to lay out the town site of Middletown, which was
surveyed and platted as it is at present in 1874 by B. R. Wardlow. In 1871
Mr. Young bought Mr. Berry's interest in the project, and the firm became
Young & Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong dying in June, 1872. his widow, Mrs.
Mary E. Armstrong, who still survives, succeeded to his share in the business,
which was continued under the same name, the firm selling lots and engaging
in the other enterprises incidental to starting the town. In 1870 Mr. Berry
built a four-room house (on the present site of the Lake County House)
which became the first hotel in Middletown. Mr. Young bought him out in
1871 and put up a two-story building on the same ground, making a four-
teen-room house. In 1875 he moved the frame building back on the prem-
ises and erected the brick part, finishing it practically as it stands today. In
this connection he started the first brickyard at Middletown, making the
bricks for his hotel. In 1873 he built the livery barn at Calistoga and Union
streets. Mr. and Mrs. Young conducted the hotel from the time he purchased
it until 1885, his wife's assistance proving very valuable in the management,
seeing to the comfort of patrons and insuring satisfactory service. Mr.
Young then traded the house for his fine ranch in the Coyote valley, which
he continues to own. They lived there from 1885 until about 1920, when
they returned to Middletown. About 1892 Mr. Young bought the general
store which his sons Wirt H. and Baxter E. had started, and he carried on the
business for two years, until burned out in 1894. He had no insurance, and
the $4000 stock was a total loss. He had had a previous loss by fire, having
had his livery at Sebastopol, Sonoma county, burned out; at that time he
lost about $1000, having no insurance. When the store burned he went back
to the ranch, living there until October, 1913, except for two years during his
term as county assessor (1902-06). There he gave most of his attention to
agricultural pursuits, though he held the office of supervisor for six years. He
was first appointed, by Governor Stoneman. to fill a two-years' vacancy, at
the end of this service being elected for the full term of four years. In political
connection he is a Democrat. He is a member of Friendship Lodge No. 150,
I. O. O. F., at Middletown, being the present noble grand, and his wife
belongs to the Rebekahs. She is a leading member of the Presbyterian Church
of Fiddletown, taking special interest in mission work and the activities of
the ladies' aid society. In all of Mr. Young's enterprises she has been his
valued coworker, and she has had her full share in his success. They occupy
the residence on Union street, Middletown, which he built in 1872.
On November 20, 1866, Mr. Young married Miss Lutitia M. Berry, who
was born at Fulton, Ill., daughter of Baxter Bell and Elizabeth (Cameron)
Berry, the father a native of Tennessee, the mother of Kentucky. Mr. and
Mrs. Berry moved to near Oskaloosa, Iowa, and from there came overland to
California in 1852, settling in Sonoma county, where they were pioneers. Of
their nine children only three now survive : Lamira S., Mrs. Cannon, of Mid-
dletown ; Lutitia M., Mrs. Young; and Eva, Mrs. Scudder, a resident of Sebas-
topol, Sonoma county. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Young :
Wirt Haight, now engaged in farming in Coyote valley, married Lizzie
Hughes, and they have two children, Ethel May and Wirt Raymond. Baxter
Ewing, now located at Oakland, Cal., married Miss Hattie Adamson, by
whom he has one child, Margaret Lois. Lizzie M. died when about three
years old. Charles W. is at Sacramento, engaged as foreman in the reclama-
tion of lands along the Sacramento river, in the employ of the California
National Bank; to him and his wife Velma (Brooks) have been born two chil-
nren, Charles Glenn and Lutitia Adeline.